Brief Biographical Note of Justice Karen M. Weiler

Justice Weiler was born in Spiritwood Sask. on June 13, 1945. She received her B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan and her LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1967. After articling with Blake, Cassels & Graydon, she was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1969. She practised law with Weiler, Weiler and Maloney in Thunder Bay until 1972 when she returned to Toronto. At that time she entered the LL.M. program at Osgoode Hall which she completed in 1974 while working for the Ministry of Community and Social Services. In 1975, she became counsel at the Ministry of the Attorney General and later became Senior Counsel in the Policy Development Division. Appointed to the former District Court of Ontario in 1980, and to the Ontario High Court, February 21, 1989, Justice Weiler was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal on March 12, 1992. Justice Weiler is fluent in French and has presided over most of the appeals heard by the Court of Appeal in the French language. She was appointed to the Court Martial Appeal Court on July 26, 1995. In 2001, Justice Weiler completed the mediation training program in dispute resolution offered by CDR Associates of Boulder, Colorado as well as an Advanced ADR Workshop. A pre-hearing appellate conference is now offered by the Court of Appeal as a voluntary option to litigants who request it. Related judicial activities include: serving on the Justice Minister's Advisory Committee for Judicial Appointments; being one of seven judges from Canada chosen to participate in the first Canadian American Legal Exchange led by the respective Chief Justices of Canada and the United States; acting as a director of the American Judicature Society, the Canadian Judges Conference, and the International Association of Women Judges – Canadian Chapter.